A sessions court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to

three people in the infamous 2012 Kohistan video scandal.

District and Sessions Judge Safiullah Jan of Kolai-Palas Kohistan announced the
verdict in Bisham amid strict security arrangements, sentencing Mohammad Umar Khan,
Saeer and Sabir to life in prison for killing three women in the name of 'honour',
according to public prosecutor Attaullah Khan.

The three convicted men are relatives of the slain girls. Mohammad Umar is the
brother of deceased Begum Jaan, Saeer is the father of Bazigha and Sabir is the
father of Seerin Jaan.

Read: Murders in Paradise

The convicts were arrested last year by Mansehra police.

All three of them had confessed to the murders before the court, lawyer Saboor
Khan, who represented the plaintiff's family, told DawnNewsTV.

Five other accused were acquitted of the charges against them. They include:
Mehboobur Rehman, Abdur Rashid, Shamsur Rehman, Sarfaraz, and Habibullah.

All the accused were brought to court from the jail amid strict security
arrangments made by both Shangla and Kolai-Palas Kohistan police.

Two of the three men convicted in the case are escorted by police. � Photo: Umar
Bacha
The security inside and outside the court was also on high alert during the
announcement of the verdict. The only two journalists present to cover the
announcement were not allowed inside the courtroom.

In May 2012, a grainy video of four women singing and clapping and two boys dancing
had gone viral in the ultra-conservative and remote district of Kohistan. Three of
the women from the video clip were then allegedly murdered on a jirga�s orders.

The video was filmed at the home of Afzal Kohistani, who went on to expose the
honour killing murders after his own three brothers were killed in Palas Kohistan.
Afzal continued his struggle through various courts to have the killers of the
women and his brothers punished for years, until he himself was shot dead in
Abbottabad in March this year.

Afzal's younger brother, Bin Yasir, who was one of the two men seen dancing in the
video, then continued to fight the cases on his behalf and appeared in all court
hearings.

Commenting after today's verdict, Bin Yasir told Dawn via telephone that he would
be happier if the court had convicted all the alleged killers of his brothers and
the women.

Faizur Rehman, a nephew of Afzal who was the sole person present at the court
hearing, said they would challenge the court verdict.

�I am not happy with the court decision; we will challenge the acquittal of the
five accused in the high court because they were involved in the murder of the
girls due to which my four uncles were killed," he said, adding that their family
was also receiving threats from the rival Azad Khel tribe and that their lives were
at risk.

The video thus ended up claiming seven lives, including that of the three women,
and four men, including Afzal Kohistani and his three brothers.

The case was taken up by the Supreme Court on at least three occasions and the
killing of the women was established years later.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the three
men were convicted for the murder of five women. They were, in fact, convicted for
the murder of three women.